Bakeries, laundries and the first delivery runs of the day are all working while the rest of the city is dark, and their day is set by fixed times rather than by daylight. If 12:51 am is a start, a stop or a collection slot, the countdown here follows it exactly and needs nothing pressed to keep going.
The clock it uses is your own — whatever local time and zone the device is set to. In the Emirates that means Gulf Standard Time, four hours ahead of UTC, year in and year out. Travel with the same laptop and the count follows the new local time once the machine has picked it up.
In an office where a dozen nationalities read the same calendar invite, 24-hour notation quietly does a lot of work. 00:51 cannot be misread as the other end of the day, whereas 12:51 am depends on the reader noticing two small letters at the end of it. Both describe exactly the same moment.
Common questions
What is 00:51 on a 12-hour clock?
The same instant is 12:51 am in writing and nine minutes to one at night out loud. Anything from 13:00 onwards loses twelve to give the pm figure, which is the only sum involved in moving between the two.
Does the number update by itself?
Yes. It is recalculated every second from your device's clock, so nothing needs refreshing or restarting. Whatever is on screen is the current gap to 12:51 am, not a figure worked out when the page first opened.
What happens once 12:51 am has passed for today?
The count rolls over and carries on towards the same time tomorrow. That happens on its own at the moment the time passes — the page does not need reloading and there is nothing to reset by hand.
Which clock does the countdown use?
Your own. It reads the local time and time zone from the device in front of you, which in the Emirates means Gulf Standard Time, UTC+4. Travel and the count follows whatever the device picks up.
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